User u/Karzdan posted the above image** of Nereis sandersi  to the Reddit forum. The polychaete worm is known from hydrothermal vents and described relatively recently by Blake in 1985.   Interestingly, N. sandersi is eyeless.

Furthermore, the presence of sunken depressions in places where eyes usually occur in N. sandersi is unique for the genus. The occurrence of such depressions is reminiscent of blind cave-dwelling vertebrates which have only vestigial, non-functional eye rudiments remaining from ancestral progenitors which had sight. The very large peristomial ring and enormous palps would appear to be appropriate sensory replacements for a sightless animal in the deep sea. -Blake (1985)

And so begins the Photoshops

**note I am trying to track down the original photographer of the image to credit them here. UPDATE: credit goes to Nicolas Gayet from Paulo Bonifacio lab.

The post Photoshop Battles with this Image of a Hydrothermal Vent Polychaete Worm first appeared on Deep Sea News.

FLIP, the Floating Instrument Platform, is towed to an area in a horizontal position and through changing the ballast flipped into a vertical position.  In the flip postion, most of its 355 foot length resides underwater providing a stable observational even in the roughest seas.  The Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) at Scripps operates FLIP but it is owned by the US Navy. FLIP set to sea in 1962.

At Reddit, o’ god how I love Reddit, the photo above was posted which then started what can only happen on the internet…free time and mad, mad Photoshop skillz. Below are my favorites so far.

The post Flip Ship Photoshop Battle first appeared on Deep Sea News.